Metroid RE:Birth
by Cloudy Mistral
Summary: Shortly after the events of the bottle ship, Samus Aran has engaged in a seemingly insane plan. She has joined forces with the scientists of the Federation in order to create an army of genetic duplicates of herself, and used these SA units to destroy the remaining evils in the universe. Told from the view of SA-00, the prototype duplicate.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey guys, just a quick bit from the author before the story begins. This is my first attempt at fanfiction... sort of. I had this idea late one night, so it might be bad. So please burn it with the hot flames of cutting reviews as much as it pleases you. Also, in case it's not apparent, I like the Metroid games, so I hope I look like I know what I'm talking about, but if you see something blatantly wrong, please let me know! Enjoy!**

Alone.

Always alone.

I hated the cold darkness of space stretching around me. I hated the stars blinking throughout the galaxy, surrounded by planets covered in life. I hated my ship for keeping me alive as I traveled through the vacuum. I hated it all, because it only reminded me just how alone I was.

My designation is SA-00. I am the first of many.

I am a genetic duplicate of the great hero of the galaxy, Samus Aran.

I hate her most of all.

My destination is an as of yet unnamed planet, designated SR-915.

My mission: Genocide

This wasn't my choice of course. The only reason I was here was the bomb embedded deep within my chest, right next to my heart. That little gift made decision making a little easier. The Federation certainly knew how to keep someone in line, especially when that someone was a clone, and therefore held no rights in the galaxy. All I had was myself in this vast universe. It was a lonely life, if it could be called that.

A holographic image of my destination appeared on my ships monitor, and I knew I was close enough to begin the deceleration process. There was no doubt, this was the formerly uninhabited world now home to the last of the Space Pirates. I almost felt sorry for them. After the events of the bottle ship, my namesake had taken it upon herself to finally rid the universe of the dreaded Space Pirates. Of course, she realized it would be impossible on her own, as they spread at a rate slightly faster than she could destroy their planets and space stations. She was forced to rejoin the Federation in order to enact her plan, which was relatively simple. If she could not destroy the Space Pirates alone, then she would simply create another Samus Aran, one equally capable and just as deadly. I was the first of these.

Suddenly, my ship began to shake violently as I entered the planet's atmosphere, jarring me from my memories. I braced myself, expecting at any moment to be turned to a bloody mist from a planet-side phazon cannon. When I finally reached the ground uninjured, I rose from my seat, and began to equip my Federation issue power suit, complete with Varia technology. To distinguish me from my many sisters, they had decided that my suit should be white, which worked well for display purposes, but was extremely unhelpful in actual combat, basically making me a walking target that even a half blind zebesian could spot at 60 meters.

Just how I liked it.

As I snapped on my helmet and heard the cold, mechanical hum of machinery, I forgot for a moment that I was here against my will. As the HUD popped into my visor, my purpose was brought to the forefront once more, and I moved quickly to the platform that would release me onto this uncharted world, a weapon for destruction, and nothing more. I could almost feel the bomb in my chest as my breathing came faster and faster, the familiar experience that accompanied the beginning of almost all of my missions. I was ready.

Before the platform could even begin to rise, however, the front half of my ship disappeared, gone in an instant. I had no time to assess the situation as a massive hand, almost a claw reached into the remaining portion of my ship, wrapped its deadly talons around my torso, and pulled me violently from my position. Suddenly, I was face to face with an incredibly large, angry face, one I knew from the histories I'd grown up with.

"Ridley." The word somehow managed it's way past my lips, before everything went black.

Chapter 1 END

 **Hopefully you enjoyed this relatively short chapter, leave a review with your thoughts! I'll probably make chapter 2 soon, depending on how this pans out, so until next time,**

 **CM signing off.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Back again, even if you didn't need that. Enjoy chapter two.**

I woke up in a pitch-dark room, with a pounding headache and my heart racing. I instinctively reached for my forearm to activate my power suit's external lighting, only to find that my armor had been removed. I blindly groped the area around me, trying to get a grasp on my situation. What I found didn't help me any; I was in a cubical room, roughly 6 foot by 6 foot by 6 foot. There didn't seem to be any sort of door, and the air had a gentle earthy smell. The ground, walls, and ceiling all felt like some sort of stone, rough to my probing fingers. They also felt incredibly cool, and if I weren't covered by my modified zero suit, I would undoubtedly be shivering. Lucky me, I sprung for the thermal upgrade.

As I continued feeling my way around, I gradually slowed my heart rate, and began to focus my other senses. A strange sound soon came to my attention, a soft noise, almost calming. It was coming from the wall behind me. I turned, and felt the wall once more. It felt slightly cooler than the other walls, and if I left my hand still, I could feel movement on the other side. Without hesitation, I took a step back from the wall, and launched myself feet first into- or rather, through it. As the stone crumbled, I quickly realized what the sound I had heard was.

I was underwater, and before I was all the way out of the room, I was forced back in by the rush of the new inflow. I quickly got my bearings, and rose to the top. I managed a few gulps of air before the room was completely flooded, and the water stopped moving. I needed to get out of there, now.

Moving swiftly through the new hole, I looked around as quickly as I could, trying to see light. I was in a long hallway, roughly 20 meters in either direction from my cell. Both ends had sharp turns at the end. A sliver of light shone around one of the turns, and without thinking I began swimming towards it, as fast as I could. My lungs began to burn as I approached the light, and finally, I reached the end of the hall and rounded a corner to be confronted with the source.

A standard power door, glowing a faint blue. Ordinarily, this would be no trouble, but in order to open one, you had to hit it with some force, the easiest way being simply to shoot it. I threw myself against it, beginning to panic. The door stood firm, seemingly mocking me with its friendly blue hue. I swam back a bit, and planted my arms on either side of the narrow hallway. I began kicking the door furiously, but the water slowed me down enough that my blows did not have the needed power. I was beginning to lose consciousness as I finally gave up, and threw myself against the door one last time. Just as blackness began to take me in it's arms, I noticed a small box on the wall, with a palm print symbol covering it's surface. Slamming my palm down on it with as much force as I could muster, I heard the quiet _woosh_ of the door opening. The water rushed into the now open room, and I floated along with it, powerless to stop myself. Finally, the flow calmed down, and I laid on my back, soaking wet, gasping quietly for air in a brightly lit room. As I reigned in my thoughts and emotions, I looked at the doorway I had just come through. It was still open, and a steady flow of water ran over the floor and into a grated opening just inside the doorway.

I looked around the rest of the room, but as I saw what I was looking at, I froze. The room was large, big enough to fit my ship and still have room to move freely. The walls were covered in displays, with countless technical information on them. But that wasn't what caught my eye. In the center of the room was a tank filled with a viscous green liquid, and through the murky substance I could make out a figure. Next to the tank was a pedastal with numerous readings on it, most of which looked like vital signs. I quickly approached the tank, and peered deep into the mire. My heart sank as I realized who was inside.

The person looked just like me.

 **So this seems pretty dramatic so far. Hope you guys enjoy, please do leave a review if you feel moved to! Next chapter should be out next week-ish, if not earlier. Or later. Either way.**

 **CM out.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey folks, just a quick bit. Yeah, this isn't a week-ish. Please enjoy.**

As soon as I recognized her, I immediately turned to the nearby console. All of the information was written in a foreign language, and was simple gibberish to my unaided mind. If I only had my power suit, I could decrypt this data and understand it as easily as my own language, but without it, it was hopeless. I would only do more harm than good here. I turned back to the tube, and muttered a quiet apology. I turned back to the room and noticed two more doors on the left and right walls. One glowed a faint blue, like the one before, and the other, a deep crimson. There was zero chance I could bypass the crimson door without my power suit, as it was under a level one lock down and could only be opened by the force of an energy missile or an even higher firepower. Blue door it is then.

As I approached the door, a dull thump came from behind me. Turning, I saw the woman in the tube, one hand placed on the glass. Her eyes were now open, a confused look on her face as she stared at me. For the first time, I noticed a pale scar etched across her face, from the top of her left ear down to her chin, and continuing down her neck until it passed out of view under a black Zero Suit. She motioned towards me, and I hurriedly approached the tube. Then, she did something unexpected. She began to trace her fingers over the surface of the tube in a pattern that closely resembled the alien characters on the console, and I realized instantly what she was trying to convey. I moved over to the console, and following her filings entered a sequence of characters into it. Finally, her fingers were still as I entered the last few characters. With a dull _whump_ , the tank began to drain.

When it was finally empty, the seemingly seamless tube gave a sharp click, and a door previously flush with the surface began to hiss open. She didn't wait for the door to finish opening, and launched herself out, wrapping her arms around me and laughing.

"Thank you! Crap, has it been a long time since I've seen a human, or, um… Anyways! Thanks a bunch!" She paused, looking me up and down. Realization showed plainly on her face, as she noted the white and gray colouring of my Zero Suit. "Oh! You're 'that' one! SA-00! I'm SA-39, but I call myself Sal."

"You have a name?" It was news to me. All of the other SA units I had met were gloomy, quiet, and generally violent creatures who obediently carried out their missions- without which, most would commit suicide as they felt purposeless. Yet here was Sal, an SA unit who had given herself a name, and seemed downright chipper. Annoyingly so. I pushed her off of me as gently as possible.

"Well yeah. It's easier to say than SA-39, isn't it? You know, you should look into that, big sis. I don't think SA-00 fits you very well."

"Big sis?" I was irritated now. This spunky younger model was trying to familiarize herself with me. "I'm not your sister. You were made in a _freaking tube_! How on Zebes are we related?"

She looked sad for a moment, as if recalling a painful memory. "Of course we're related. We were made from the same genetic material, raised in the same SA-D program. I looked up to you for as long as I can remember. The other SA units were always depressed, and some were barely functional. But you were different. You had something to drive you, a fire in your eyes. That's why I made you my goal."

I was stunned. "Fine. Regardless of relation, we need to get out of here, and that doesn't look like it's going to be easy. My ship was destroyed, and they took my power suit. I have no idea where we are. So for now, let's explore a bit and see if we can find our way out of this hell hole."

"Got it!" She chirped, and we began to move towards the still closed blue door from before. I gave it a sharp kick, and it opened, revealing another long hallway, this one brightly lit, and closely resembling the interior of a space frigate with metal walls and a window on the left that looked off into a sheer rock face. At the end of the hall was yet another blue door, where I repeated the opening process. We repeated this process two or three times before finally ariving at a t junction, with two blue doors down two hallways.

"Split up." I said queitly, making my way to the left door. When I reached it, I turned to see Sal at the other door, as she kicked it open, turned, waved, and proceeded through. I opened my door with no problem, and headed through it.

I heard a dull click as the door closed behind me, and I turned to see that it was no longer blue, but a deep sea green.

"Crap." I felt my heart sink. This was a level 2 door lock, and the only way to open it now was to either find the control room and disable it, or blast it with an extremely powerful weapon. Without any weaponry at all, it looked hopeless, so I turned around and began to study the room I had entered.

Room was hardly the word to describe it. It was a biodome, filled with green plant life, and it stretched for what seemed like miles in every direction. A blue artificial sky complete with a fake sun hung thousands of feet above the top of the highest plants, some of which were hundreds of feet tall. The walls near the door gave off a faint shimmer, and as I moved away from them, they began to look more and more like the rest of the forest.

I began to sweat a little as I moved through the thick vegetation, listening closely for any signs of the fauna that was sure to be here. A cold shiver rolled down my spine as I suddenly saw a flash of green in the foliage ahead of me. There it was again to my left. Another flash on my right. Either this thing was incredibly fast, or there were multiple separate entities. I heard a _crack_ from behind me, and I broke out into a full sprint. Suddenly the forest seemed to come alive with the sounds of life, as screeching and howling assaulted my ears. I heard the green creatures begin to fall back after a minute, but I continued to run. Finally, I reached the opposite wall, which I would have run right into if I hadn't been looking for it. A blue door awaited me, which I hurriedly kicked open, and passing through, I caught a glimpse of the green creatures that had been following me. There were five of them, and they appeared to be a bird-like reptile with numerous sharp claws on each hand, and what looked like a scythe on their tails. They all tilted their heads sideways simultaneously as the door clicked shut and returned to its faint blue hue. I looked farther down the hallway, and saw another door, but the colour made my heart plummet. Green, just like the last one.

I had to go back out there, and these things were waiting.

 **That was a lot of forest. Hope you enjoyed. Please do leave a review if you want, I hope I'm not the only one enjoying this.**

 **CM out.**


	4. Chapter 4

**For those of of you reading this, I love that you took time out of your day to read it. Thanks**!

I sat in the small hallway, trapped between the blue and green doors. I couldn't open the green door, and on the other side of the blue door was a forest full of some form of surely violent alien life. The situation couldn't possibly get worse.

A sound from the blue door proved me wrong.

I heard a loud _whump_ from that direction, and turned to see the door beginning to slide open. _They had figured out how to open doors?!_ I watched in horror as the green bird-lizards stood just outside the door, all of them tilting their heads quizzically. Now that they were much closer, I could get a better look at them. Their slender green bodies stretched roughly six feet from the tip of their baked noses to the end of their scaly tails. Their long, thin forearms ended at a five clawed hand, each claw extending several inches. When one of them opened its mouth to screech at me, I saw row after row of small but sharp teeth. I stood up and hurriedly backed against the green door, trying to put as much distance as I could between me and them. One of them, with a streak of blue running down its beak, cautiously made his way into the room, quickly followed by the others. There was nowhere to run; my only hope was to either fight them or run past them back into the forest, and with no chance of the latter happening, I steadied myself for a fight that could probably be the end of me.

The blue streaked one stopped approaching. It tilted it's head again, then made a screeching, almost whistling cry. The other four repeated the process, and hopped from one foot to the other nervously. The one nearest the door seemed especially nervous, but before I could realize what was happening, I felt the door behind me click as it unlocked. Not stopping for even a second to consider why, I turned and threw myself through it. I slammed into a man in a white lab coat, who was holding a battered looking clipboard and a bucket of what smelled like fish. His bewildered gaze fell on me, and he started to cry out in alarm, but before he could I drove my knee into his abdomen, grabbed him, and threw him into the hallway I had just exited. The door slid shut as he picked himself off the ground, the bird-lizards staring at him with much the same look they'd given me a moment before. As the door clicked shut, I saw the blue streaked one lunge forwards, stabbing its clawed fingers into the man, and I heard his screams echo. A few moments later, everything was once again silent.

I quickly took inventory of took inventory of the room I now found myself in. It looked like a lab, full of display cases with dead organisms floating in a blue liquid. The tables around the lab were covered in papers and notes haphazardly tossed about, and the walls were covered in even more notes raped and tacked up, and behind those, even more notes. A single door stood at the other end of the room, but unlike the doors I'd seen thus far, did not glow with any colour. It looked like it had been powered down, and the nearby console was once again in that unfamiliar language. I repeated the character sequence from when I had freed Sal, but it did no good.

Deciding that the notes stuck everywhere were as good a shot as any on shedding light on the door, I turned my attentions to them instead. The task soon began to feel hopeless as I went through pile after pile of notes, but all I found were notes on the biodome at the other end of the hallway. I learned that the bird-lizards from before were called Burēdotatchi, and apparently they were the apex predator of their home world Weebilia. Still, nothing I needed.

Finally, after three or four hours of searching, I found what I was looking for. A small note on the back of a clipboard showed the words Door Activation Code, followed by 33 different characters in a sequence. Rushing to the door, I punched the information into the console as quickly as I could. The sound of whirring machinery greeted me, and I waited patiently for the door to open.

Finally, the door began to glow a faint blue, and I stepped through into another long hallway, which curved and rose at a sharp angle. I walked cautiously down the hallway, hoping that no other deadly creatures awaited me. As I neared the end, I came into a large room made entirely out of some transparent substance, and found myself perched over the biodome. I could see the entirety of the massive room, and far below I could make out the green flashes of the Burēdotatchi as they hunted their next prey. I could also see creatures that closely resembled monkeys, but with a hand on the end of their tails.

A shadow passed over me, and I looked up. The roof of the biodome continued on for quite a while, and in the sky I saw something that sent a shiver down my spine. A group of what I had assumed to be birds from the ground, flying in unison. They were a deep purple, with fiery red eyes that were thankfully unaware of my prescence, and a scaly hide that could undoubtedly take more than a few hits from my arm cannon, even if I'd had my power suit.

They were space dragons.

The same as Ridley.

 **Hope you managed to get through that. The next chapter should be more exciting, hopefully.**

 **CM out.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Thanks for reading, hope you enjoy this short but eventful chapter.**

I needed out of there, now.

I looked back to the wall with the door I had entered through, and was surprised to see two more doors on either side, one red and one blue. I slowly made my way to the new blue door, keeping my gaze locked on the flock above as they circled some unseen prey. As I finally came up to the door, I felt a sharp _thud_ as the room shifted, throwing me off balance. I hit my shoulder on the wall, crying out in pain. The room shook again, and I averted my gaze from the flock to look below me.

There, one of the space dragons flew, keeping itself aloft with its great leathery wings. It's blood red eyes locked onto mine, and he slammed his full body into the floor of the room. The glass floor cracked, a seam beginning to show in the far side of the room. I turned back to the wall, finding myself on the opposite end from the new door. I began to run, stumbling as the beast below continued his assault. The cracks were wider now, showing throughout the entire floor. I finally made it to the door, and giving it a sharp kick, it began to open.

That's when the floor gave out. I felt the glass shatter as the monster threw itself into the room, then fell once more as the breaking glass crashed against its wings. It gave a great screeching cry, and pulled out from under the collapsing room. I leapt through the door, just as the piece of glass I'd been standing on only moments before broke free, falling for thousands of feet to shatter in the forest below. I hit the ground running, and as the door slid shut, I heard the creature roar with fury.

I found myself running down a long hallway. The lighting system seemed to be damaged, and almost all of the overhead lights were out or flickering. As I continued, wondering when the end of the hall would appear, the lighting only grew worse. Finally, I reached a crossroads. Three hallways seemed to stretch on forever. I decided to keep heading straight, ignoring the other two passages for the time being. I passed two more intersections before coming to a small room at the end of the hallway. On the far wall was yet another blue door, and a window a few feet off the ground that looked into the next room. I began a dash for the door, but a shadow passing over the window stopped me. I threw myself onto the ground right beneath the window, trying to avoid being seen by whomever was on the other side. I felt the hairs on the back of my neck rise as the shadow grew larger, covering a large portion of the room I was in. Whatever was there was standing mere inches from my hiding place, just out of view. I hoped that the angle of the window prevented them from seeing me, or I was screwed. After a few moments that dragged on for what felt like hours, the shadow receded, once again providing the room with a steady light. I waited maybe five minutes before I moved, trying my best to slow my racing heart. I slowly inched upwards, the top of my head visible to anyone looking my way, until finally I could see inside the room. What I saw was confusing: a stark white power suit floated in a tube in the center of the next room, I recognized it immediately as mine. Next to that tube were two figures, one a man in a lab coat, who seemed to be in charge, as he rapidly punched in those strange characters into a terminal that looked like it held statistics on my suit. The other, a woman, was also dressed in a lab coat, and she was turned to face me. She tapped and swiped furiously at a tablet in her hands, but I couldn't see anything more than her bleach - blond hair covering her face. Suddenly, she reached up to sweep the hair out from in front of her left eye, and I felt my heart plummet as I noticed a pale scar from the top of her left ear down to her chin.

Sal looked up at me as if she had known I were there the whole time, smiled, waved, and pulled a Federation issue laser pistol out of her coat. She tossed the tablet over her shoulder, hitting the man. Without hesitation, she pointed the gun at the door, fired, and I heard the familiar sound of the door opening. She then pointed it at me, and, walking towards the door, made a motion like the gun had fired.

Sal was coming to kill me.

I hesitated, wondering how this situation had happened, before finally realizing that it didn't matter right now. I had nothing to protect myself with, and there was no way I would be able to fight her hand to hand, not as long as she had that pistol. I was flat out of luck, and this was the end. There was no way to escape, if I ran down the narrow hallway, it would be easy for her to put a charge in the back of my skull, killing me instantly. I ran over possibility after possibility in the few seconds it took her to reach the door. There was nothing I could do, so I decided that if I were to die right now, I would try as hard as possible to take her with me. She finally entered the doorway, and I launched myself at her, trying to get close before she could pull the trigger. She nimbly dodged, turned, and pointed the gun at me as I lay prone on the ground.

"Checkmate Sis." She looked happy with herself as she pulled the trigger, and I screamed as the white-hot energy pierced my chest, welcoming the darkness as I began to pass out from the pain.

I thought I could hear the words ' _This is not the end'_ as the blackness enveloped me.

 **Well darn, that was more than I intended to accomplish. Leave a review if you feel like it, next chapter will be up whenever I have free time!**

 **CM out.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Sorry if this isn't appropriate for all audiences. Hope you enjoy.**

The first thing I felt was the pain.

I woke up in a bed, a thin sheet covering my otherwise naked body. I tried to sit up to see more of my surroundings, but my body wouldn't listen to me. I felt another spasm of pain rip its way through my chest, and looking down as much as I could, I saw an angry red wound just off center on my chest. The wound itself had been cauterized by the heat of the blast, but it was a miracle I had survived. The charge must have passed incredibly close to my heart, and the energy it gave off should have triggered a heart attack. I should be dead.

Which meant someone had saved me.

Who? Sal? That didn't make any sense, she had tried to kill me. Was it the man in the lab coat? I tried once more to move my body, and found myself unable to lift even a finger.

"Don't bother, Sis." I heard a voice from off to my left. Straining to look that way, I could just make out a familiar figure on the edges of my vision. She approached the bed, dressed in a black tank top and black pants. This was the first time I'd seen this much of her skin, and my stomach churned as I saw her arms covered in pale scars, from her wrists up to her shoulders, and dissappear into her shirt. Noticing my gaze, she smiled, holding out her arms in front of her to give me a better look. "Do you like them? This is what they do to you when you fail, sis."

"Who's they?" I tried to say, but I couldn't form the words as my tongue moved out of sync with my jaw.

She laughed eerily, guessing what I had tried to say. "The Federation of course, silly!" She sat on the edge of the bed, a strange smile displayed on her face. When she spoke again, her voice was grim and angry. "They told me it was my punishment. The doctor, he would shoot me up with a muscle relaxant, then perform his little… surgeries. I would cry, unable to say anything, not even capable of screaming…" She trailed off, her gaze distant. Suddenly, she refocused, her face cheerful and bright again. "But then one day, he mixed up the drugs! Instead of a muscle relaxant, he gave me a steroid. I pretended to be incapacitated, and when he tried to begin his surgery, I overpowered him. He found out the hard way what it was like to be on that table. I really learned a lot from my time then." She stood, and walked back to the where she had been. When she turned around, she held a scalpel in her right hand, holding it almost gingerly, as if it were precious to her. My brain began to process what was about to happen, and I pleaded with my eyes as she drew closer once more. She saw the tears streaming down my twisted face, and stopped.

She began to laugh. "Don't be stupid, I wouldn't do that to you! I still need to operate though. I may have destroyed the bomb in your chest, but there still some residual damage that could lead to injury if I don't treat you."

I could hardly understand what she was saying, I was so confused. She had destroyed the bomb? That was impossible though, it was set to detonate if anyone were to attempt to tamper with it. Thats when it hit me. She hadn't shot me trying to kill me, she had destroyed the bomb then. I breathed as much of a sigh of relief as I could. She arrived at the bed, and reaching across it produced a syringe full of a reddish liquid. Tapping out the air bubbles, she placed it against the vein in my arm. "I need you to go back to sleep now, okay?" I tried to nod, but failed miserably. I felt a sting as the needle entered my arm, and quickly fell back into the arms of sleep.

I woke up again, this time dressed in a loose fitting shift. The room, which had previously been brightly lit, was now dark. I tentatively attempted to move my hand, and found that I could, with a little difficulty, move not only my hand, but my arm as well. I slowly tried to lean up, but was met once more with pain coursing through my torso. I laid back down, staring up at the dark cieling, trying to quantify what had happened. Sal seemed to be an ally, at least for the time being, but why had she needed to destroy the bomb in the first place? Who was that man from before, and why were they studying my power suit? There were too many questions, and no answers to be had. I gently twisted my head, trying to get a good look at my surroundings without causing myself any more pain. I saw several tables surrounding me, with what appeared to be medical apparatus on most of them. For the first time, I noticed that a tube ran into my left wrist, which was connected to a machine that I assumed provided nutrients, medicine, and whatever else I might require. There was nothing to tell me how long I'd been here, or even where here was. The lack of a mechanical hum meant we were probably still planetside, but why was such a huge facility here on a supposedly deserted planet? I felt myself slipping back into unconsciousness, and as the darkness once again took me into its sweet embrace, I began to dream.

 _It was cold. I remembered that about the Facility. The vacuum of space itself seemed to hold more warmth than that wretched place. Even still, I looked forward to waking up every morning, in that place where I spent so much of my young life._

 _The place where I was born._

 _If you can call it that._

 _As the first child in the SA-D program, I was special. I never knew about the other SA units, at least not until my release. All I knew was that there was a woman who called herself my Mother._

 _She was Samus Aran, and I loved her._

 **I really hope you guys are enjoying this story. I hope to flesh out my characters a bit more next chapter, so please continue to read! I appreciate all of you! If you want to show this to your friends or leave a review, do, if not, don't. I apologize if this ep seems short, but a lot happens next time to make up for it.**

 **CM out.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Sorry for the wait, please enjoy.**

 _When I was a little girl, I killed my first person._

 _Person isn't really the proper term, I guess. He was a space pirate, a Zebesian. He was also a prisoner, captured during the AU incident. I was 6 years old, but I had been undergoing combat training from the moment I could walk. Mother had made sure of that._

 _That day, I remember asking her to tell me about her Mother. She smiled sadly, and told me she barely remembered her. A monster named Ridley had taken her away, along with someone named Father. I asked her why she didn't go get her back. She looked at me inquisitively, before telling me that was impossible._

 _With that, we began combat training, and she moved to the control room as I took my place in the holo-chamber. I had only a small pistol that was too large for my hands; I had not received a power suit at this point. I looked at the window that separated the two rooms, and saw Mother standing at the other side, ready to start the simulation. I nodded and gave her a thumbs down, something I had picked up from her, letting her know I was ready. She moved her hands over the control panel, and a holographic creature appeared in the room with me, outlined with wire mesh. I recognized it as a Sidehopper, a medium sized creature native to Zebes, which supported its small body on two large, sturdy legs. It's main attack pattern was jumping straight into its prey, tackling it with its superior weight. I waited patiently as it loaded, until it was covered with a red and green pattern almost exactly like an actual Sidehopper. Finally, a green light appeared above the window, and the battle began._

 _I stood my ground as it closed in on me, leaping high and crashing back into the ground. If it hit me, I knew I would fail the simulation. Finally, it had closed the gap between us, and launched itself up into the air once more. As it plummeted back to the floor, I hit the ground where it had been in a roll, popped up, took a firing stance, and released seven rounds into the holographic body before it touched the ground. Large chunks of the hologram were missing as it hit the ground hard, and the artificial sensation controls made the room shake. As it slowly dissipated, I looked back to Mother in the window, a smile on my face. She grinned, then held up two fingers. Time for level two._

 _The day continued on like this for a little more than four hours before I was allowed to take a break. I sat just outside the chamber eating a small meal, and that's when all hell broke loose in the Facility. Alarm bells were firing at incredibly high frequencies, shrieking throughout the building. Mother came rushing down the hallway, stopping as she passed me. She told me to stay where I was, and to stay safe. She had something to take care of. With that, she took off down the hallway, before turning a corner and dissappearing from sight._

 _I waited for what felt like hours. The time dragged on, and I began to tire of waiting. In order to ease my boredom, I moved back into the holo-chamber to resume practice. I used the voice activation command to enable level fourty-seven, and began to work my way up through wave after wave of deadly creatures. Finally, I called out to turn off the simulation, sweating profusely. All of the holograms winked out, but there was something wrong. One of the Zebesian holograms remained standing off to the side of the room nearest the door. I repeated the command, but nothing happened. Then the Zebesian began to move, and I realized that it was real. It slowly approached me, wary of the gun in my small hands. I quickly trained the pistol on it, aiming directly for its large insectoid head. It froze, then did something unexpected. It prostrated itself on the ground slowly, keenly aware of its possible demise at any moment. As it laid itself out on the floor, unarmed, I noticed a large wound on its back, right below its jutting shoulders. Black blood seeped out of a carapace - like body, and I slowly lowered my gun and began to cautiously approach the injured creature. As I approached, it made a quiet screeching sound, like knives across glass. A chill ran down my spine._

 _I reached it, and knelt down beside it, inspecting the large wound. It heavily resembled the expected damage from a round issued from a power suit's arm cannon. The fleshy parts inside the creatures hard outer shell were cauterized, leaving very little blood to flow, but it was too late to repair the damage done. I had studied medical documentation in my spare time, and I knew that the Zebesians, while far more resilient than many other races, had two weak points in their bodies: their heads, where their shells were much thinner, and at this point just below the shoulder blade, where their lungs and other vital organs resided. This poor Zebesian was already dead, he just didn't know it yet. I drew back, and the creature looked at me with unsympathetic insect - like eyes. He - or she, I didn't know - did something strange. He spoke._

 _Kill me, he said._

 _I looked down at the gun in my hands, and resigning myself, aimed at his soft forehead, and pulled the trigger._

I woke up again, the lights still off. The pain in my chest had mostly subsided. I looked down at my wound and saw only a pale red scar. How long had I been asleep? I tried to lean up, but was knocked flat by a agonizing pain. I lay for a moment, catching my breath. I was in no condition to move, that much was certain. I soon drifted off, back into my past once again.

 **Hopefully you were entertained by this. I'm sorry if these next few chapters are boring or unnecessary, but I feel like the story needed them. If you don't like them, let me know, I can't do anything if you don't. I appreciate all of you, and until next time,**

 **CM out.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Enjoy.**

 _I remember the first time I set foot outside the Facility. I was eleven at the time, and I had begun my first real mission. I had been issued my first power suit, an orange model similar to Mother's in every way but size. I had been clumsy at first, expecting it to feel different than normal, but found my movements to be just as concise and precise as they had been without it. The only thing I had trouble with after the first few minutes was handling the space jump feature, which required far more practice than I had available. My first mission was simple enough: I was to track down a man named Gead Vellsa, and if possible, bring him in for questioning. I wasn't told why, and when I asked Mother, she ignored the question. If she didn't think it was important enough to tell me, then it wasn't worth knowing, is what I thought at the time._

 _I found him, mere days after my search began. He had been in a bar on a luxury freighter, spending credits like they were water on drinks and women. The trail from his bank account had been ridiculously easy to follow, even a child without the training I had undergone would have been able to find him._

 _I entered the bar, power suit fully functioning and arm cannon ready to go at the first sign of resistance, although unbeknownst to me, it had been modified to fire only stun charges instead of a full power beam. I felt a bead of sweat appear on my forehead as a massive sad of flesh appeared immediately within the entrance. It was a bouncer, and I was eleven. He said he didn't want any trouble, but if I didn't leave the other guests would soon be inhaling my disassembled atoms. I complied, wishing to keep my atoms assembled as much as possible. As I was roughly escorted out, Gead noticed me, or rather, the Federation symbol on my right shoulder. I watched a bead of sweat roll down his face as his already wide eyes grew even wider. He turned quickly to the man on the other side of the bar, who I assumed was the bartender, and said something I couldn't hear, gesturing in my direction. The bartender laughed, nodded, and called out to the bouncer in a language I'd never heard before, and the bouncer responded in kind. He then picked me up and forcefully carried me over to where Gead and the bartender were. For the first time I realized that most of the bar was empty, with only one other person, a man in a dark coat and sunglasses sitting in a booth in the corner of the room, muttering quietly as he nervously checked his watch repeatedly. I turned my attentions back to Gead as I was gently placed on the barstool next to him._

 _He seemed less concerned than he had been moments before, as he began to ask me questions._

 _Who was I?_

 _I don't have a name._

 _Where was I from?_

 _The Facility._

 _Why was I here?_

 _Mother sent me to find him._

 _Who was Mother?_

 _Mother is Mother._

 _The questions went on for a few minutes, before he finally asked why I was looking for him. I told him that I didn't know. He just looked at me curiously, then pulled some credits from his pocket, set them on the bar in front of him, and stood to leave. He told me to take him to Mother, and as we left, I had a strange feeling, almost like apprehension. As we moved to the freighters docking bay where my ship laid in wait, he began to talk, quietly at first, then louder and faster until he reached a fervent pitch._

 _He talked for a while about a place called the Bottle Ship, and an experiment there to create an artificial intelligence to rival the once - great Mother Brain. He talked about a platoon of Federation soldiers who had been sent to this ship after a distress beacon had been activated, and they entered the ship to find all of its human inhabitants dead. He also spoke of a woman who had appeared shortly after, one who had faced many trials to stop the AI, who had gone rogue and killed most of the people aboard the ship. After the dust had settled, only one member of the original platoon returned alive, and a new group of Federation scientists had taken up residence planned to take up residence in the Bottle Ship, only to find it destroyed under mysterious circumstances shortly before they arrived. Finally, he told me about the soldier who had survived, and how the soldier had managed to get his hands on some very sensitive data before the ship was lost, data that could change everything. Data that now resided in only one place in the entire universe._

 _The mind of Gead Vellsa._

 _It was then that we arrived at my ship. He looked at me, not moving for a moment. Then he did something funny. He smiled, and said that I looked just like her. I asked who 'her' was, but he just ignored me and shouldered past me to enter my ship. I followed closely behind, and that's when it happened. As he walked over the thin bridge that extended out to meet my ship, he stopped. I came to a halt beside him._

 _He said something I couldn't quite hear._

 _I asked what he had said._

 _He turned around to face me, then said that the data must never be found by her. He smiled sadly one last time, and then propelled his body off of the side of the bridge, where he fell for hundreds of feet before slamming violently into the floor below. As I watched confused workers on the ground floor scurry about his misshapen corpse, wondering what those last words meant. I also dreaded having to tell Mother of my failure. I felt no sympathy for Gead, only remorse for not stopping him. As a pool of blood emenated from his dead body, I entered my ship, heading back to the Facility once again._

When I came to this time, the lights were on. I could just make out Sal off to my left, but I couldn't see what she was doing. I moaned quietly, and she turned toward me.

"Awake already? Well, to be honest, I expected that." She smiled. "How are you feeling?"

I tried to speak, but my mouth was almost totally dry, and I had trouble forming the words I needed. Seeing my distress, she turned back to the table in front of her, grabbed a cup of some liquid, and turned back to me, offering it. I reached for it, and she gingerly pressed it into my hands. I leaned up slowly, waiting for the sharp pain I had felt from my previous attempts. I was pleasantly surprised when I reached a sitting position without any pain, and pressing the cup against my lips, drank for the first time in what had probably been days. Whatever it was, the liquid inside the cup tasted sweet, with just a hint of a bitter aftertaste, and my speech soon returned to me.

"I'm fine now." I managed, still taking sips of the drink.

"Good, good. We can't have our important guest out for much longer." A male voice came from the other side of the room, and I turned to look. The scientist from before was leaning against the wall. Now that I finally had a chance to get a good look at him, I noticed a few things right off. First, his age. He was incredibly young, perhaps barely older than me. Second, his hair. It was a dull red, and it seemed to have a mind of its own as it sprung out at odd angles. The last thing I noticed was his eyes. They were a deep red, with black slits where his pupils should be. "I'm sure you have a lot of questions. But don't worry, I intend to answer all of them, to the best of my abilities."

I sat, waiting for him to continue. When he didn't, I spoke. "Why are your eyes like that? You seem human, everywhere except your eyes."

He grinned. "I have my father's eyes. You may have heard of him. His name is Ridley."

 **Exciting. Next chap should be up soonish. As always, I love you for reading this, the support is amazing. Tell me if you think I'm stupid, and I'll try to improve.**

 **CM out.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Thank you for reaching this point. The end is soon. Enjoy.**

My mouth hung open as if I were about to speak, but I couldn't form the words. Ridley's son? My confusion must have been readily apparent, as he chuckled and began to explain.

"Well, maybe father isn't the appropriate word. Progenitor, then? I came from a sample of his DNA, one that your Mother inadvertently acquired. Although Mother is hardly the appropriate term either. We're much the same, you and I. The first of our kind. My designation is R-00 D, but you can call me Rood. My favorite things include Biotechnology, cooking, and card games."

I cut him off before he could continue. "What does that have to do with anything?"

He grinned again. "Well, I feel like you should get to know something about me, since I know almost everything about you. Did you know, there's a data mine set up in your power suits helmet? Or that it has been mining your memories and thoughts for nearly all of the seven years you've owned it? Now who did that, I wonder?" His voice trailed off.

Of course, I knew the answer. Mother had overseen the production of my power suit, down to the smallest detail.

"I can see now that you actually had no idea." He continued. "But the real question is, why? Or more appropriately, why _you_? You see, I've thoroughly examined Sal's suit, and found no such device. On top of that, after going through your memories, I've come to two conclusions. First and foremost, you were definitely the 'favorite child', if you get my meaning. While Sal and the others struggled with their lives, with only each other for support, Samus herself raised you from birth as your Mother. Everything in your life was successfully engineered to make sure that you were a perfect successor to the legendary bounty hunter Samus Aran.

"Secondly, there is a slight alteration in your genetic coding. It's not something you could notice normally, it's almost as if it were hidden on purpose. I don't know if it's because you were the prototype or because of a technical malfunction, but you have a much greater aptitude than any of your sisters. It's almost as if you were made for the explicit reason of surpassing the others."

His words echoed in my mind, especially those last three. I had heard those words so many times during my childhood, although at the time I had no idea what they had meant. So Mother had planned for me to be her successor from before I was born. The idea held no pleasant place in my mind. I had long since abandoned the notion of continuing her legacy, content with simply living out my days until my use to the Federation had reached its end, and the bomb in my chest were to detonate.

I spoke, a hint of sadness in my voice. "She did all of that, just for me? She abandoned the others, left them scared and alone." I was growing angry as the words flew out of my mouth. "She never wanted any of them to exist in the first place. She told me that once. She left you, Sal, to suffer. A little girl, scared and scarred. _I hate her!_ Why couldn't she have chosen one of the others to be her successor? Why did it have to be me? I'm far from perfect, I don't deserve the life I had. _I never asked to be made_!" Hot tears flowed freely down my cheeks. I closed my eyes, wishing I could erase my very existence.

I felt a something smooth and cool on my face, and opened my eyes. Rood had a piece of cloth, and was using it to dry my tears as they moved down my cheeks. He spoke, his voice soft, lacking the jovial quality it had held just minutes before.

"Trust me when I say I understand." He gave a small smile. He grabbed my right hand and pressed the cloth into my palm, wrapping my fingers around it. Then, he stood, turned towards the door, and left, Sal close behind.

As they left, Rood called over his shoulder, his voice once again bright. "Get some rest. I'll be back in a few hours to check up on you."

The lights went off as the door slid shut behind them, and I laid back on the bed.

Suddenly, a strange thought entered my mind. I had been sent here originally to destroy the last of the Space Pirates, yet I hadn't seen any signs of life besides the Biodome, Rood, Sal, and that researcher from earlier. Was that another lie? How many times could I be betrayed by the people I knew and trusted since my birth?

As my thoughts grew darker, I slipped back into my dreams.

 _I remember my last day in the Facility. I was happy to be leaving, ready to continue on in my training. Mother had told me the day before, and I could barely contain my excitement. I was going to go on a mission with her for the first time, and I felt that I could finally prove myself to her. I had successfully completed a number of missions since my failure, always trying to make up for my mistake. I never forgave myself for my failure then, and even now it ate away at the back of my mind. I worried that maybe I would fail this time, and the thought scared me more than anything else. There could be no more mistakes, or Mother would witness my failures firsthand._

 _I slipped on my white Zero Suit, and sat on the end of my bed, waiting for Mother to appear, waiting to leave this place and see the infinite universe that sprawled its way across the night sky. Soon, I heard the telltale click of the door activating, and stood quickly._

 _Mother stood in the doorway, along with a man I had never seen before. She told me to follow her, a smile on her face. I did so happily, excited and nervous to be leaving with her. However, instead of moving towards the Facility's exit, we began to move deeper within the huge building. As we moved, my nervousness must have shown, because she told me not to worry, she had to show me something before we could leave._

 _Finally, we reached a nondescript door at the end of a hallway. The three of us stopped, and the man stepped in front of the door. He began to speak, rattling off a long list of numbers, and when he finished, the door slid open._

 _As I passed through, following the man and Mother, I stepped into a nightmare. I saw countless children in various stages of development, all malnourished and clothed only in dirty, patched, black jumpsuits, looking out at us from behind thick glass. They all looked eerily familiar, and I took a closer look at them. Their gaunt faces made it difficult at first, but soon I recognized them._

 _They looked exactly like me._

 _I looked at Mother, confused. She met my gaze, and with a smile, introduced me to my sisters. I stood before them, the contrast readily apparent, and I felt every set of their eyes on me. A few of the younger girls looked curious, but most of the older ones simply looked angry, their eyes burning with a fire that I had seen many times before in my own reflection. Mother began to speak, and I felt her words reverberate through the room as she told me about project SA-D._

 **Sorry about the increasing delay between chapters, uni is busy. I hope you are enjoying my rather depressing tale, hopefully I can get back to the action soon, so bear with me. I appreciate all of you, and as always, leave a review or pm me if you have any suggestions.**

 **CM out.**


	10. Chapter 10

**The reason for it all. Have fun.**

' _Death has surrounded me for as long as I can remember.' She began. 'I watched as Ridley killed my parents. I watched as Ridley killed the Chozo I was raised by. I fought tooth and nail to become stronger, strong enough to kill Ridley and finally gain some rest from my nightmares. Over time, I became a killer as well, ending countless lives with my blaster, unflinching and unmoved. My goal was the only thing keeping me going, and one day on my home, Zebes, I came face to face with that monster. The fight was intense, and I came close to death numerous times, but I won. I killed him._

' _At least, I thought I did. But years later, I was forced to return to Zebes, chasing the Metroid hatchling. During this, I was shocked to find Ridley, my most hated enemy, alive and stronger than before. How could this have happened? He wasn't the only one, of course. Mother Brain, and Kraid as well had returned. I managed to defeat them all once more, but the encounters revealed something to me._

' _Evil will never die. As long as there is a light in this universe, there will be shadows. This was confirmed after I encountered Ridley once again, this time on the Bottle Ship. This thought led me into a deep depression, spiraling down into the depths of hatred and fear. Fear, it's a funny thing. It can make people do the impossible, but it also makes them fail just as easily. With me, it made me realize something. There was nothing I could do to end evil entirely, at least not alone. But there were no others capable of doing what was necessary to exterminate evil, so I was met with an impasse. Finally, the answer dawned on me._

' _If there was only one person capable of accomplishing what needed to be done, then why not create more of that person? I must have sounded insane when I brought my proposal to the Federation, but what other alternative did I have? Nobody took me seriously at first, they all thought me mad. But finally, I met a certain doctor who was willing to attempt the genetic cloning.' Here she gestured to the man from before, who was busy tapping and swiping on a tablet. 'Doctor Morough, an expert in his field. He threw all of his efforts into this program, but we were met with failure after failure, until one day, we had a success._

' _You. The ones before failed to make it past the first trimester of growth, and if they did, they were nonfunctional or deformed. But you were different. Not only did you survive, you were perfect, a completely healthy duplicate. Drawing from our successes with you, Doctor Morough began the duplication process on a mass level. You, my Daughter, are the turning point, the dawn of a new age of peace throughout the universe. Without you, none of this would be possible.' She looked around the room, a smile that reeked of satisfaction plain on her face. Finally, she turned her eyes back to me, and her smile dropped slowly._

 _Hot tears rolled down my face. The other SA units watched us, their gazes burning as I spoke through clenched teeth. 'Don't blame me for_ this!' I gestured towards the glass. ' _Do you even see them, Mother? Can't you see they're locked up in here? Look at their eyes! There's no life there. These aren't even humans, they're just mindless drones. How could you do that to them? How could you bring them into this world, knowing they would never know anything but fighting and war and death and despair? HOW COULD YOU?' I screamed, looking her dead in the eyes. I'd never noticed before, but I was now tall enough to stand eye to eye with her, and I did so now. She didn't flinch as I moved closer, grabbing her chin and forcefully turning her head towards the SA units._

' _I do see them.' She spoke softly, and without emotion. 'And you're right, they're not human. They're not even worthy of licking the dirt of my boots. They exist for the sole purpose of killing my enemies,_ our _enemies.' She turned to look me in my eyes. 'I should have stopped with you. You were perfect, I didn't need them. I still have no use for them, they only exist for research purposes. You are more than enough to realize my long awaited dream.'_

 _Before I knew what I was doing, I slammed my fist into her jaw. She stumbled backwards, a small cut appearing on her chin. She brought her hand up to her jaw, rubbing it gently. 'I will_ never _help you.' I turned to leave, but found my way blocked by Doctor Morough, who stood in the doorway, a small pistol trained on my chest._

' _I believe you'll find that the opposite is true, my little prototype.' His voice was smooth and deep as he adjusted his aim, and fired twice. An explosion of pain tore through my abdomen, and I crumpled to the ground. As my vision faded to darkness, I heard Mother speak._

' _Another failure. This one showed so much promise, too. Give her to the Federation, it's time to move to the next sample.'_

 _My world was swept away, as I drifted into unconsciousness._

The sound of the door sliding open woke me, and as the lights clicked on I saw Rood standing in the doorway.

"How are you feeling?" He looked tired, dark circles under his eyes, and his already unkempt hair was in even worse shape than before.

"Better than you look." I said with as much cheer as I could muster at the moment.

"Good to see you have a sense of humour. And here I thought you were just a mindless servant of the Federation." He moved from the doorway, towards the table off to my left. He cleared a spot amongst the medical apparatus and documents, and took a seat on the table. "I've been busy monitoring the Biodome for the last eighteen hours, not counting the sixteen before that spent monitoring your vitals. Someone killed my head researcher, after all."

I remembered the man from before, and I was hit with a deep regret.

"I'm sorry." was all I could manage.

"He was a good man. He had a family too, a wife and daughter. Now I have to tell them that he'll never come back."

I couldn't meet his gaze. I had been raised to put my survival first, and I'd never considered the repercussions of… I couldn't finish the thought.

We both sat in silence for a few minutes.

"So." Rood broke the silence. "Do you have any questions for me?"

"Dozens." I replied, grateful for the change in topic and mood.

"Ask away."

I took a deep breath. "Why is there a Biodome full of deadly predators on a supposedly deserted planet?"

"We've been researching them, analyzing their attack patterns, and trying to see if there's any way to use them in military applications. Imagine an army of Federation troops, with support from a squadron of Space Dragons. Or a pack of Burēdotatchi. This is nothing new, humans have been doing this for millenia." He paused. "Next question."

"Why is Sal working with you?"

"You'll have to ask her that one. I try not to give up other people's secrets. Next question."

"Why am I here?" This was the biggest question to me, and the most puzzling.

"That's a bit of a long story. The short version will have to do for now.

"We need you to kill Samus Aran."

 **I hope you've managed to make it through the last few chapters. We're finally getting back to the action, so fasten your seat belts and hold on to your butts. PM me or leave a review if you have suggestions, questions, or are just mad at me for ruining your day. Next chapter will be up when I have an hour or two of free time to write it, so until then,**

 **CM out.**

 **P.S. Go hit up a2alexa's Zelda story if you like this. She's much better at pacing, although updates are scarce. (You heard me.)**


	11. Chapter 11

**I apologize for my hiatus, some things happened in my life that made writing difficult. Hopefully you can forgive me. Enjoy.**

"What?"

The word escaped my lips before I could stop it. When nobody answered, I looked Rood in the eyes and repeated myself.

"We need you to kill Samus Aran." His voice remained steady, but I could see a faint tremor in his hands as he said the words.

"But why?" I was genuinely confused. I had no problem with it, my hatred for her was certainly enough, and I had killed before. The only thing bugging me was why anyone else would want her dead.

Rood seemed to relax a bit. "I didn't expect you to take it so well. The reason, my dear SA-00, is this: Your Mother is planning to destroy the galaxy as we know it."

"How, why, and for how long has this been going on?" This sounded insane to me. The great hero of the galaxy, the one who had protected it numerous times, wanted to destroy it?

"It's been in the works since she destroyed the Bottle Ship. The how is also easy enough to answer. You. Well, let me rephrase that. Your successors. It seems Samus has been up to quite the business since you left, especially since she started marketing her clones as bodyguards, peacekeepers, even soldiers. She has a large clientele as well, almost entirely on the black market." He paused for a moment. "Actually, she was planning on selling you, but the deal fell through when we 'killed' you. Some Mother, eh? Anyways, that doesn't sound that bad, now does it? And it wouldn't be, if it weren't for one thing.

"The Obedience Drive. The OD is a device your Mother came up with, and I have to say, it's fascinating. When activated, it responds to the bomb embedded in an SA units chest, and starts a subroutine in the device. This causes a death-like trance in the subject, during which they will obey any order given to them, while also activating a micro - speaker planted in the ear lobes," He glanced at me as I instinctively reached for my ear. "Don't worry, we removed yours while you were recovering from the surgery. Well, maybe removed isn't the right term, but anyways. This device would have created a wall of white noise that deafens the subject, while also working to transmit orders."

"But what does that have to do with destroying the galaxy?"

"It's quite simple, actually. Your Mother has hundreds of duplicates already in action around the galaxy, with thousands more on the way, under the pretense of peace. But what if the OD were to fall into the hands of someone like, say, Ridley? Imagine hundreds of SA Units under the command of the most evil being in the galaxy, possibly the universe? Well, that's not even half as bad as what we're dealing with. Even if she is actually trying to keep peace, your Mother is striking fear into the hearts of many old foes. The Space Pirates are on the verge of extinction, or are they? Are there actually millions upon millions of them, hiding, biding their time until they strike us a blow so severe we never recover. Metroid research continues in countless labs throughout the galaxy, with new hatchlings every day. Samus knows all of this. Her goal is to end all of it, to eradicate the vermin from existence, and she is willing to make any sacrifice to do so, even whole planets if need be. And who would stop her?"

The realization set in. There was nobody who could stop her. Thousands had tried, and all had failed. Even her deadliest foe, Mother Brain, had been beaten in mere minutes. With an army, she would be unstoppable, and the galaxy would never be the same. I knew better than most that with her, the end justified the means.

"I will."

I said the words quietly, almost a whisper. I spoke again, more firmly this time.

"I'll stop her."

Rood smiled, and I could almost swear his uncanny red eyes were sparkling. "Then let's get started, shall we?"

 **Sorry this chapter is so short, and yes, it is full of cliche's. But everything won't go how you expect it to, so hold on for the next chapter. Ah, who am I kidding. We're two or three chapters from any excitement, right? RIGHT?**

 **CM out.**


	12. Chapter 12

**I just want to thank all of you for your continued support on this haphazard little tale. It means a lot. Also, I'll try to get the next chapter out quicker than this one.**

I was in Hell.

I fell on my cot, exhausted. It had been almost two weeks since I had made my decision, and every day I had done the same grueling exercises. The first day had been the easiest, I was well rested and ready to go. The second day, my bed rest caught up with me, as almost two months worth of rest had thrown my system so far off, it would take almost as long to get me back into peak condition. It also didn't help that both Rood and Sal were easily keeping pace with exercise that had tears roll down my face from exhaustion and agony as my dormant muscles woke from their short slumber. The worst part of all was my chest. While the two had done an exceptional job at patching me up, the wound still ached with every movement, and the more I moved, the worse it became.

Maybe if we didn't work for fourteen hours a day, it wouldn't hurt so much.

The next few weeks passed by, much the same, although I did notice it becoming progressively easier as time went on. After the third week, they decided to add a new exercise: sparring.

If the previous weeks had been Hell, I didn't know what to call this.

I would wake up, go through my daily routine of running, push-ups, running, squats, running, sit-ups, running, weights, running, climbing, running, target practice, running, and finally, when I thought my body was about to give out, we would spar. If I won, I got to skip the next day's training session and rest. If I lost, I had to wear fifty kilos strapped to my back the next day.

I lost a lot.

"Never make the first move!" Sal yelled at me from the sidelines, as Rood knocked me on my back for the third time. I quickly picked myself up, shot Sal the dirtiest look I could manage, and turned back to my opponent. He grinned, took a step back, and took his fighting stance. He looked absolutely rediculous, with his sweat soaked hair hanging in his face, his legs slightly apart and offset, and his hands balled into tight fists, all while still wearing a lab coat.

"What the heck am I supposed to do then?" I grumbled quietly. I watched him carefully, deciding to let him make the first move this time. He obliged, taking a step forward, feinted left, and clocked me on the right side of my head, sending waves of pain throughout my body as stars flew into my vision.

"Don't ever let the enemy make the first move, either!" Sal yelled in the most encouraging voice possible.

I turned to yell at her. "Sal, I am going to kill you if you don't shut up!" Rood took the chance to step inside my guard and land another two blows, one to my stomach and another to my left shoulder. It knocked the wind out of me, a wave of nausea swept through me, and I hit the floor, coughing and wheezing, trying to catch my breath. The small lunch I had managed to inhale earlier made its reappearance as I emptied my stomach involuntarily. When I could finally breathe properly, Rood threw me a towel to clean myself up with.

"Again." He said, in what was probably a friendly tone, but I heard it as sadistic and snide.

"I never pictured you for the slave driver type."

"Would you like Sal to take my place?"

Another wave of nausea made its way through my body as I shivered, remembering the last time me and Sal had sparred.

"I'll take your silence as a no." He offered me his hand, no doubt to pull me up. I dropped the now-soiled towel in his hand and pushed myself to my feet. He gave me a dirty look, and threw the towel behind him, once again adopting his rediculous pose.

Days passed like this, then weeks, and I made steady progress. As I went through what had once been terrible effort and pain with ease, I noticed myself becoming stronger. I began lifting more weight, running harder and for longer periods, and even made some progress in sparring against Rood. I never won, but I managed to get a few hits in here and there. Finally, after almost two months, I managed to lay him on his back, much to his chagrin.

"Absolutely amazing." He muttered, picking himself up off the ground. "You've certainly made progress. Let's call it a day, and enjoy your day off tomorrow. The next day, you'll start sparring with Sal again." He turned around, and gave me a flippant wave over his shoulder.

I stumbled back to my cot, and nearly collapsed as I threw myself into it. Sleep came immediately, but the morning came too soon. As I woke up well past the dawn cycle, I crawled out of bed, full of energy for the first time in weeks. I made my way to the kitchen, where a cold plate of food waited for me. I didn't see the other two, which was unusual. At least, to me.

I threw my plate in the warmer for a few minutes, then pulled it out to find it steaming and ready to be eaten. As I settled down to eat, a loud crash came from down the hallway, towards the lab.

Before I knew what I was doing, I was running down the hallway towards the sound. Another crash came, and another. As I came to a stop just inside the labs door, I saw the source of the noise.

Rood lay on the floor, blood flowing from a wound on his forehead. Sal stood over him, a heavy-looking instrument in her hand, and she turned to face me as I arrived. Her eyes looked wrong, almost dead.

She began to move towards me, bloodstained instrument in hand.

 **Tell your friends. Or don't. Also, who wants to guess what happens next?**

 **CM out.**

 **P.S. I've been meaning to come up with a real name for SA-00, but it'a hard to find one that fits. Leave me some ideas, if you feel like it. If I use it, I'll be sure to credit you.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Enjoy**

I had little time to think, by the time my brain finished processing the scene before me, she was on me. She whipped her tool through the air with enough force to shatter bones, and I dodged backwards, losing my balance as I far wall in the hallway behind me. She made another attempt, this one even faster, and I barely managed to twist out of the way as she dented the metal where I had recently been. There was no room for a counterattack as she relentlessly swung her weapon, every blow aimed to kill or maim.

I was carried backwards by her assault, and soon found myself in the kitchen again. Her attacks only intensified as we moved into the larger room, but that was when I noticed it. A pattern to her attack, one with a very slim opening that only a madman would attempt to break through. I dodged through a few more cycles of this pattern, to make absolutely certain, and when the time was exactly right, I made my move.

I leapt inside her swing as she brought the weapon up to prepare for her next strike, and grabbed her arm as she brought it down, stopping the blow before it could kill me. There was no chance to relax, however, as I suddenly felt a deep pain rip through my abdomen as the air in my lungs evacuated forcefully. She brought her knee up into my stomach again, and again, driving it harder and harder. I couldn't stop though, the instant I released her arm, the attack would ensue once again. I hooked my right leg behind her left leg, and as she brought her right knee up once again, I drove my free hand into her chin with all the force I could muster. She stumbled backwards, her weight carrying her over my leg as she collapsed on the ground, and I dove on top of her, my knee against her throat as she lay there, gathering herself.

I heard a voice from the lab where I had left Rood. "Are you okay?" I heard a crash as Rood stumbled into the kitchen, pressing his freshly removed shirt against his wound. I threw him a look that must have been a mixture of confusion, anger, and blame.

"What the hell happened?" I screamed at him, although I had a sinking feeling he knew about as much as I did.

He stood there, taking what felt like a lifetime to speak. When he finally did, his voice was barely above a whisper. "You already know, don't you?" I couldn't keep my gaze steady as he continued. "Its the OD."

I could hardly believe my ears. "You said she was safe! She wouldn't be affected by it!" Sal stirred beneath me, then settled back into a motionless state. "Was that a lie?"

My eyes traveled to her face, then back to Rood. "Yes," he answered with no inflection. "It was a lie. It was _her_ lie. She made me promise her this, that I would never tell anyone, unless she were to be affected by it."

"So wait, you're telling me Samus just happened to pick _now_ to turn on her evil little machine? What the hell kind of coincidence is that? Why would she even do that?"

"That's the thing. She didn't." He sighed, a look of absolute sorrow upon his face. "Do you remember how you found Sal? Well, let's just say this isn't the first time this has happened. Every time its happened so far, we've had to contain her and 'purge' her, if you will."

The evident confusion on my face made him continue.

"Did you ever ask yourself why, if Samus had a machine that could control all of her duplicates down to the last twitch, why she would ever turn that off? She doesn't. Ever. It's like billions of bees screaming in your ear, all of them saying the same thing, and if you don't do exactly what they want you to, they all let into you with enough pain to knock out a small animal. Sal has to live with that _every second of every day_. And you know what?" His tone changed, it was much colder now, with more force behind it. "She does it with a smile on her face. And when the pain gets to be too much to bear, she slips into this state once again, a vegetable with no purpose in its existence except to seek and destroy anyone who would dare cross your Mother." I didn't realize it, but as he had been speaking, he had moved closer until he was at her side. She looked at him with her lifeless eyes, and he looked at her, almost tenderly. Then he pulled down the shirt he had been using as a bandage to reveal something small and silver, and before I could stop him, he had placed it against her neck and clicked a small button on the side of it. It made a slight click, and her eyes rolled up into her head. I moved off of her, knowing there was no need to fear anything now.

"She should be out for a while now. I'll take her to her tube for another purge." He picked her up gingerly, and began to take her down the long, dark hall. "Oh yeah, maybe I should mention this," He called back over his shoulder. "It's been taking less and less time between each treatment. If this keeps up, she'll be unable to do much of anything. Keep that in mind as you train for the next few days."

I was left, sitting on the cold kitchen floor. I felt ill, and all thoughts of eating had long since fled my mind. Suddenly, I could take it no longer, and I began to cry. Sal and Rood had been suffering for so long, under so many hardships. My pitiful existence didn't even compare to theirs. But they still had something I could barely understand, even now. They had both chosen to be reborn from the shadow of their creators, two being who had been locked in eternal struggle ending in constant death and multitudinous despair. I could never compare to them.

Suddenly, a thought struck me. A single word, that sounded both warm and strong. I knew instantly that this was my definition, my destiny.

My name, is RE:SA.

And I would begin a new legacy, as soon as I removed the stains of my Mother's crimes.

I would be victorious.

 **I hope you like my subtle name. I was literally struck with it, like a bolt from the blue. I knew it was far too good to pass up. Ah, who am I kidding, I totally planned this name with the title. For sure. Yeah. Like really.**

 **Sorry about the wait, if you waited. Hope you enjoy some more excitement next chapter.**

 **CM out**


	14. Chapter 14: The End of Peace

**Sorry if this seems late, Finals and Papers are going to kill me. Enjoy.**

The next few weeks passed by like dust on the wind. I spent most of my time training, working harder than I had before, and I noticed a difference almost immediately. It was strange at first, because Rood spent most of his time taking care of Sal, but after a week her 'purge' had been completed and she was back with us in both body and spirit. The few moments I wasn't working or sleeping, I spent going over the plan Rood had drawn up while I was training. It wasn't really all that complicated, but that's because it was impossibly stupid. I couldn't see any way for it to work, but he remained adamant about its success.

"It'll work. Trust me." He said one day as I brought up yet another fault in his plan.

The thing was, I didn't really have any reason to do so. I'd never thought about it before, but I had no real reason to trust either of them, but something drove me to do so. Call it fate, or destiny, but I knew that I needed to be here right now. So I decided to trust him.

"Fine. But when you die, don't come complaining to me." I said testily. He only smiled at my lame attempt at a joke before returning to his work.

That was another thing I thought about. What exactly took up so much of his time that he was always busy? I constantly peeked over his shoulder to see his tablet, but I couldn't understand any of the information on the screen, and not for lack of trying. I even asked Sal about it a few times while we were sparring.

"Well, he does quite a bit on there, you have to be more specific." She said as she brought her left fist into my chest again, knocking the wind out of me and landing me firmly on my back.

After I caught my breath, I spoke again. "I don't really know how to describe it. It makes no sense to me, it's mostly complicated words and numbers that don't make any sense. I was hoping you'd be able to clue me in." I stood up, ready for round thirty-eight.

She was quiet for a moment. "He really is a genius, you know. He even figured out how to keep me in control. However, if there's one thing I know about him, he can't stop working on something once it's caught his eye. If you can't understand it, then it's probably something to do with our history. Every scrap of information he can find is on that tablet, and he's constantly trying to come up with an alternative to this plan of his. If he can figure out a way to break us free of the OD, then he would happily do that instead." She paused. "Did I ever tell you why I'm here?"

I shook my head, lowering my guard as I did so.

"Well, don't ever tell him that I said this, but I really do look up to him. Did you know, he was supposed to be the leader of the Space Pirates? After the whole Ridley fiasco a while back, some of the surviving scraps of the Space Pirates managed to create a batch of humanoid creatures, each with the mental and physical prowess of Ridley himself. Rood was the firstborn of that lot, and he was taken away from his flock and raised in isolation to help him mature at a faster rate. While he was in this isolation, he realized two things. The first thing was simple enough. 'I am a living creature'. Just a thought, something we often take for granted. The second thing was more important to his development. 'I don't want to hurt other living creatures'."

Suddenly, the door to the training hall opened, and Rood walked in. "Sorry to interrupt my life story, but Sal, I need you for a minute."

"What's up?"

"We have a situation with the rats." Although his face remained pleasant, his tone was grim.

Sal's whole demeanor shifted instantly. "What happened?" She practically screamed the question, already running for the door. As she blew past Rood, he turned back to me.

"Resa, we only have a few more days left before we kick this off. I made a few modifications to your Power Suit, you might want to check it out and familiarize yourself with it."

"What about the rats?" I asked, both confused and curious.

"Oh, that? Nothing. I just didn't need Sal telling my whole story for me. Maybe I'll tell you myself sometime, but for right now, I just can't." He grinned. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go make my peace before Sal kills me." He turned and left, the door sliding shut behind him.

I found my Power Suit suspended in a tube of viscous green liquid, which I quickly drained. When I opened the tube, I immediately noticed a major difference in its design. Where before, Federation logo had been emblazoned across the chest area, there was now a single symbol, one I'd seen many times over the years. It was an image of the Screw Attack, one of the most powerful weapons in the known universe, which made the wielder almost impervious while also providing nearly unstoppable offensive power. The symbolism wasn't lost on me, but something about it bothered me. This was Mother's weapon. Hers was the only one in the universe; she had never thought to duplicate it as well, or if she had, she had decided against it. I didn't really want to bear any sort of resemblance to her, so I decided to ask Rood to remove it.

I set aside my thoughts for a moment and began to equip it, a process which took mere seconds. I stood in behind the familiar armor, and began to walk forwards as though I was going to walk right through it. A faint light appeared in the joints as it recognized my step pattern and came to life. The back of the suit clicked and whirred, until there was an opening large enough for me to step into. As soon as I was all the way inside, it snapped shut, and I felt my spirits lighten as I heard the familiar hiss of the air systems coming to life.

It had been a while, but I was back in the one place in the universe I had spent the most time.

I was home.

That's when all Hell broke loose.

 **Tune in next time, for the next exciting episode of... you know.**

CM out.


	15. Chapter 15: The Crimson Huntress

**Sorry for the wait. It's been crazy. Enjoy though.**

I heard a distant crash, and found myself struggling to stay on my feet as the room began shaking violently beneath my feet. It didn't take a genius to know that something was horrendously wrong. As soon as I gathered my bearings, I dashed out of the room and down the long hallway, my visor automatically generating a map of the serpentine passage, noting doors and other paths, something that I had missed while making my way around the labyrinthian complex. A small yellow dot appeared on the map in the direction I was running, as the on-board computer pinpointed the cause of the disturbance. As I ran I did a quick run-through of the suits systems, checking off capabilities and armaments, drawing nearer to the marker.

Missiles, check.

Bombs, check.

Morph Ball function, check.

Varia upgrade, check.

Power beam, check.

Charge beam, check.

Screw Attack, check.

I almost froze as I found the Screw Attack activation sequence in the my suits processes. Rood had actually done the impossible. I wasn't quite sure how, but now wasn't the time to question it. I finally found what I had been looking for: the Speed Booster. Quickly activating it, I instantly began to increase speed, soon approaching Mach 1 as I ripped down the halls. Within seconds I was at my destination, and I was met with a wall of smoke as I looked upon the scene. I switched my visor to Thermal mode, trying to see if I could find the source, but the heat from whatever was causing the smoke made it impossible to see.

Quickly switching back, I hesitated for a second, then did my best to survey the scene. The smoke was incredibly thick, but I could make out a few things. The first was a hole in the ceiling, roughly three feet in diameter, through which a small amount of light managed to filter its way through the otherwise murky blackness. The second was a crater, or more importantly, a small elongated oval-shaped pod, one that I immediately recognized as a SA Series drop craft. The third and final thing, was a vague outline in the smoke, one that looked very much like my power suit, and for good reason.

"Hello Sister." A metallic voice emenated from the armor, which glowed with a deep crimson, made even more ominous by the lack of natural light and the sparks that came out of piles of broken machinery.

"Hello, SA-01. It hasn't been long enough." I spoke through gritted teeth.

She laughed, a thoroughly disturbing noise coming from the blood-red suit. "It would seem you have failed to complete your mission. Mother sent me to make sure it gets done." A light clicked on in her helmet, revealing her face. She looked at me for a moment, then winked. "Of course, I'm more than willing to let you finish it. After all, you are the eldest." She spat the word 'eldest' at me, almost as an accusation.

This was SA-01, the first completed product of the Federation and Mother's plan to duplicate Mother's capabilities. She was a rousing success, but she always hated me for the attentions Mother had given me. That had been made apparent by her increasingly violent behaviour, as she went far outside the bounds of her missions, destroying anything in her path as she made a name for herself. She was also called the Huntress, out of fear more than respect, and she liked it.

"The situation has changed. There aren't any Space Pirates here, and-"

"Like I don't know what's actually going on. How is Rood these days? Still trying to live down the crimes of his Father?" She smirked.

I stood there, shocked. How could she know Rood? "Your silence says all I need to hear. I'm going to kill that traitor if it's the last thing I-"

She wasn't able to finish her sentence, because, without thinking, I launched myself into her, my armored left fist connecting with her helmet, my right arm focusing on charging a Power Beam. Before I could unleash the blast of energy into her abdomen, however, she wrapped her legs around my torso and threw her body weight backwards, using inertia to bring me up and over, crashing into the ground. A harsh beep sounded in my helmet, and I watched as the bar in my visor that displayed the energy left in my suits shielding system decreased by twenty percent. I couldn't afford to take many more hits.

I quickly threw myself to my feet, as she did the same. I eyed her warily as we circled each other, two predators engaged in deadly combat. I had no notions of mercy, I knew that one mistake would end me.

"Well Sister? Are you really prepared to die for him?" She laughed again. "You, who doesn't even know who he is or what he's done?"

"No. I'm not." I tightened my right fist as I felt my arm cannon charging. "Which is why I can't die just yet, and I definitely can't let you kill him."

"Kill him? No, I'm just here to capture him. Mother has need of his services."

"Well, you can tell Mother the same thing I'm going to tell you.

Go back to Hell."

With that, I brought my right arm up to bear, and fired.

 **Hopefully the next chapter won't take months. Anyways, leave a review if you liked it, or whatever. I love you for reading this, and I'm working on a decent ending now, so it shouldn't be much longer. Til next time,**

 **CM out.**


	16. Chapter 16: The Bloodied White

**A bit faster this time. Enjoy.**

The blast ripped through the air, incinerating the very air it passed through as I watched it tear into her. It struck her directly in her left shoulder, and I watched as her shields flashed for a moment before shorting out completely. She screamed as she flew backwards across the room, until she slammed into the far wall. Then all was silent.

I stood for a moment, calmly surveying the scene. Her left arm was a wreck, with metal, blood, and bone mixing freely. The rest of her suit was mostly intact, except for a large crack that had appeared in her visor. She made no movements, but a quick scan revealed she was still alive, courtesy of her suits life-support systems.

"Are you okay?" A familiar voice called from the hall behind me. I turned to see Rood running towards me, a small pistol in his right hand, and an object I had never seen before in his left.

"I'll survive." I said nonchalantly. "That's more than I can say about her."

"Who?"

I pointed to the crumpled form across the room as he entered. He stopped short as he saw her.

"Which one is that?" His voice was unsteady, something I'd never heard much of from him.

"SA-01. She came here for you, apparently." I looked at him quizzically as he observed her motionless form.

He started pacing back and forth, then turned towards me, grabbed my arm, and began pulling me after him as he started back down the hall. I followed, not sure what was going on.

"Where are we going?"

"To get Sal, and get out of here. If the Federation sent 01, then it's likely that they'll send more. This place isn't safe anymore."

I nodded, seeing the logic. Mother wasn't the type to give up.

We finally reached our destination, a small medical room far off the beaten path. Inside I could hear vigorous swearing, and as the door slid open to allow us through, a notebook flew through it, almost hitting Rood in the face. It was soon followed by Sal, a string of profanities announcing her arrival.

"The rats are fine! What were you even talking about? Sometimes I wonder-"

She froze when she saw me, and for good reason. I hadn't realized it until now, but my previously white power suit was now spattered with red, which I could only assume was blood.

"We need to go." Rood said calmly. "Now."

"Alright."

With that we were off again, down another insane series of hallways and corridors.I heard another crash as we ran, but it was far off in the distance. A red marker appeared on the map in my visor, behind and slightly to the left of us. I could tell by the grim expression on their faces that the others already knew.

Finally, we made it to our destination, which I learned was a dock, where a ship very similar to mine was stored. Sal immediately moved towards it, and I followed. Rood hung back a little, I assumed he was making sure we wouldn't be caught off guard from behind. As Sal approached, the ship hummed to life, a boarding ramp lowering to accept passengers. As the two of us ran up the ramp, I turned to see Rood running to a computer terminal along the wall.

Noticing my hesitation, Sal shouted from the ships interior. "He's gotta open the door, come on sis, help me get this baby going."

"Got it." I ran up the steps, and settled into one of the pilots seats, going through the launch sequence for my own ship, assuming it was the same. As I flipped the last switch, two things happened. With an agonizing screech, the roof began to seperate, and the room was flooded with blinding sunlight.

The second thing was much louder. An explosion rocked the room, almost throwing me out of my seat. Sal came running up from behind, yelling for me to go. I looked at the monitor, and my heart dropped. Where before there had been a computer terminal, there was now a pile of flaming, sparking debris. Lying on the ground next to it was Rood.

Most of him, anyways. He was still alive, but the right side of his body was covered in blood, and most of his right arm was just gone. He clutched what was left of his arm with his left hand, trying to stop the rapidly flowing blood. He looked in the direction of the entrance, and I followed his gaze.

A shadowy figure stood in the entrance to the room, what looked like an arm cannon trained on the still blazing terminal. The figure stepped forwards, and the sight that met me left me more confused than I already was.

It was an abomination.

A fully armored humanoid creature stood at the entrance. The only thing that told me it wasn't human was a gigantic pair of leathery wings sprouting from its back. If that wasn't enough, I had seen these same wings numerous times. They were the wings of a Space Dragon.

The figure turned its head towards the ship, seemingly staring directly into my eyes as I watched on the display monitor, a shiver running down my spine. I wanted away from here, now, but Rood-

With a roar, the ship fired to full power, and I tore my attentions from the monitor. Sal was sitting in the other pilots chair, tears running down her face. She was screaming something, but I couldn't hear her. I didn't want to hear her. The ship shook again, more violently this time. The creature had fired on us, and a quick look at the computer told me we couldn't take any more hits. With a crash, we flew upwards, leaving Rood behind with that… _thing._

 **I did my best not to straight up murder anyone this chapter. I hope you enjoyed, so keep reading as we progress. Thanks for your time!**

 **To DracoSheild234, I'm glad you think my writing is good, that makes one and a half of us. To answer your question, I thought I made it a bit clearer than I did, but Samus is totally in on the clone creating thing. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask!**

 **Same goes to all of you!**

 **CM out.**


End file.
